Distinction between the instruction set design philosophy of RISC and CISC machines
RISC Machines: RISC stands for reduced instruction set. RISC machines were introduced in early 1980s due to the development of technology to incorporate the entire processor on a single chip, the increase in memory speeds and advancement in the compiler technology, which could generate the code to match the quality of assembly codes. The main emphasis of RISC machines was to increase the number of instructions executed per second by compromising on the number of instructions.
CISC Machines: CISC stands for complex instruction set. These instruction sets were more powerful and complex in the sense that they incorporated the technique of pipelining. Pipelining made it possible to overlap the instruction stages by starting the next instruction before the completion of first instruction.